who we are
Besides Nature Lovers
Susan and Jon Cross are passionate advocates of connecting with nature to reduce stress and anxiety and improve mood. They’re on a mission to help others experience firsthand the healing power and grounding of nature through writing and speaking and their front-line preservation activities in the rare habitat where they live, The Oak Openings Region in Ohio.
They also help people see the world in powerful new ways via their alter egos. Susan is a published author and a public relations expert. Jon is a highly regarded Oak Openings Region nature conservationist and an information technology leader.
where we live
The Oak Openings Region in Ohio
Home to more rare species than any other place in Ohio, The Nature Conservancy has called the Oak Openings one of America’s Last Great Places. The Oak Openings Region is a tract of land a little larger than the state of Rhode Island between Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, that was formed by ancient glaciers.
Read More about the science of "The Oaks"
our property
And the Story Behind it
We’ve restored our 20 acres in the Oak Openings Region to its native state which means that we’ve eliminated the invasive plants to make way for the rare native plants to regenerate. What surprised us the most was that we didn’t have to plant many seeds. We just had to disrupt the wrong environment and give what’s supposed to be there a chance to thrive. We think of our property as a Zen environment – or Zenvironment for short. A Zenvironment is an intentional space that nurtures restoration for nature and for people.
our mission
Why We Think Nature Matters
Our mission is to help others experience firsthand the healing power and grounding of nature. We’re passionate advocates who restore, conserve and connect with nature. We believe time spent in nature reduces stress and anxiety and improves mood. It's a soul-filling experience that allows us to be more present within ourselves and with the wider world.
Terms & Conditions
All of the images on this web site are the property of Jon and Susan Cross. They cannot be used or duplicated without written permission.
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy Who we are Our website address is: https://www.zenvironment.life What personal data we collect and why we collect it Comments When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Media If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website. Contact forms Cookies If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. Embedded content from other websites Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Analytics Who we share your data with Your data is never shared with or sold to anyone. How long we retain your data If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. What rights you have over your data If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. Where we send your data Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.